A creative cover letter from a hacker to the Chicago Tribune(documentcloud.org)

66 pointsby conesus16 anni fa11 comments

A creative cover letter from a hacker to the Chicago Tribune

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/10404-chris-kick-ass-cover-letter.html

5 comments

So I don't suppose anyone knows what the outcome was? Did he get an interview at least?

Post-GOOG Edit: http://twitter.com/#!/onyxfish says, "Happy you all are enjoying it--even more happy it got me the job!"

unwind16 anni fa

If you click the last of the weird (and, imo, quite visually displeasing) yellow tab thingies, close to the scribbled-over piece of text, it says "You didn't think we'd give away our teammate's contact info so easily! [...]".

I interpreted this to mean that the guy who wrote the letter got hired by the ones who received it.

conesus16 anni fa

He's happily working there now. http://twitter.com/onyxfish/status/26467188200 shows:

"For those reading my cover letter via @brianboyer's twitstorm: Happy you all are enjoying it--even more happy it got me the job!"

mtigas16 anni fa

“If you are not a hacker then you probably aren’t going to enjoy the rest of this letter any more than the first paragraph.”

I love this. I want a hacker-friendly environment and you need a hacker. If you understand any of this, let’s get together.

malandrew16 anni fa

Anyone have the original job ad? I'm curious.

tysone16 anni fa

Here are two recent job postings from the News Apps team at the Chicago Tribune:

http://blog.apps.chicagotribune.com/2009/09/09/hacker-wanted...

http://blog.apps.chicagotribune.com/2009/12/24/were-hiring-a...

staringmonkey16 anni fa

I'm the hacker in question and its the former ad I replied to. And yes, I'm quite gainfully and meaningfully employed with the Tribune. And no, I'm not full of shit (at least I wasn't on that occasion.) Glad folks are enjoying/inspired by it.

eru16 anni fa

The ad used the work `grok'. So there was a pretty high chance that the tone of your cover letter would be well received. Good perception!

digitallogic16 anni fa

Me too. I felt like I was listening to half a discussion.

edw51916 anni fa

I am less impressed by the cover letter's creativity than by its honesty. This guy writes like we're sitting together over coffee, or better yet, beer. He's either completely sincere or totally full of shit. After 5 minutes in person, it's probably easy to tell which.

Glad to hear this had a happy ending. Respect.

noahth16 anni fa

When I hear "creative cover letter" I think of something more than three to four paragraphs that cover an applicant's background, interests, and goals. It's an excellent cover letter, sure, but I fail to see much creativity with the form or structure. There's "only" the creativity that underlies all concise, punchy, effective writing.